Pritikin

First of all, keep in mind that there will always be articles like this in the popular press because “it’s what people want to hear. They like believing they can keep eating red meat and other saturated-fat-rich foods without clogging their arteries or promoting cancer,” points out Dr. Jay Kenney, Nutrition Research Specialist at Pritikin.

And what people want to hear is what magazines want to write about because these magazines will sell. That’s the bottom line.

In the latest “meat-is-good-for-you” spin, magazine writers argued the while foods high in saturated fat like red meat raise bad LDL cholesterol levels, they also raise good HDL cholesterol levels, which compensates for some of the damage the LDL is doing to our arteries.

Function of HDL

What the writers did not explain is that the function of HDL is impaired on a high-saturated-fat diet, and that more and more research is finding that what our HDL is doing may be far more important than our total amount of HDL.

In recently published research* on men in a three-week program at the Pritikin Longevity Center, for example, blood tests showed that on entry the men (typical high-fat American-style eaters) had normal amounts of HDL, but the HDL tended to be pro-inflammatory. That’s not good. Pro-inflammatory HDL promotes plaque build-up in the arteries.

But after three weeks at Pritikin, exit blood tests showed the HDL had been converted from having pro-inflammatory qualities to having anti-inflammatory qualities despite the fact that total levels of HDL had on average gone down a little. Anti-inflammatory HDL is beneficial because it does a good job of removing LDL from the arterial system.

Pay attention to the quality of HDL, not the quantity, lead author Dr. Christian K Roberts and colleagues at UCLA concluded. “The function of HDL may be more important than the steady-state plasma [blood] levels.”

The Masai

Another “sat-fat-is-okay” argument recently promoted by magazine writers is that a tribe in Africa, the Masai, ate a daily diet full of blood and whole milk but, surprisingly, had low levels of LDL and total cholesterol. Once again, the writers left out a very important fact: “Autopsy studies showed that the Masai people had extensive atherosclerosis,” reports Dr. Kenney, “so the scientific community lost interest in this exception” (and the magazine community should have, too).

So why all the atherosclerosis in the Masai who were thin, active, didn't smoke, or add salt to their food?

“Perhaps,” suggests Dr. Kenney, “atherosclerosis is more a postprandial [after mealtime] phenomenon than previously believed.” That’s what more and more data are suggesting.

Just One High-In-Fat Meal…

Right after a high-fat meal, scientists now know that increased production of chemicals like remnant chylomicron particles can wedge their way into artery walls and may be as damaging as LDL cholesterol. After each high-fat meal, there’s also an increase in Clotting Factor VII, which can increase the likelihood of plaque rupture.

Just-published research** in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition points to another possible mechanism. Each time a high-fat meal is eaten, it may enhance the absorption of bacterial endotoxins from the gut, and these toxins may trigger an increased release of inflammatory substances in the blood and arteries.

The good news: Healthy nutrition and regular exercise has been documented to quell inflammation. Research, for example, on women following the Pritikin Program showed a 45% reduction in inflammation-producing C-reactive protein, and in just two weeks.***

Bottom Line

Be wary of the headlines in the popular press. All too often, they tell you what you want to hear, not what the preponderance of scientific data says. “In hundreds of carefully controlled studies, saturated fat – and trans fat and cholesterol – added to the diet increase LDL cholesterol. The higher our LDL levels, the more plaque – and more heart attacks – we’re likely to have,” sums up Dr. Kenney.

“The reverse is true, too. Decreasing LDL levels, particularly through lifestyle changes like the Pritikin Program, is the best thing we can do to lower our risk of heart attack.”

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